Interventional imaging includes using images to guide minimally invasive interventional procedures such as diagnostic, treatment, and/or other interventional procedures.
By way of example, with one transcatheter interventional procedure, a local anesthetic is injected or applied into the skin of a patient at an entry area to numb the entry area, a puncture is made to the entry area with a needle, scalpel, etc., and a plastic sheath is inserted into the artery. A catheter supporting an interventional instrument is then inserted and feed through the sheath and into the vessel, and moved to an area of interest of the patient, such as the heart, the brain, the lungs or other anatomical structure of interest, where the interventional procedure is performed.
The interventional instrument can then be employed to perform the interventional procedure. During the interventional procedure, images are periodically acquired and used to give the interventionalist orientation and update information on the progress of the procedure. Computed tomography (CT) images have been used to guide interventional procedures. However, since CT data acquisitions can deposit a relatively high amount of x-ray radiation dose, images in CT guided interventional procedures generally are acquired very rarely and only when needed. For example, typically, an image update is only acquired after the catheter has been moved or translated, forward or backward, a certain distance, since such movement may result in a change in the interventional situation.
Unfortunately, the interventionalist performing the interventional procedure has to determine when to acquire an image and manually trigger the CT scanner to acquire the image. As such, the interventionalist may error on the conservative side and initiate scanning before necessary, which may increase patient dose relative to initiating scanning a little later in time, while mitigating initiating scanning later than desired. Furthermore, the interventionalist is tasked with acts outside of the interventional procedure (i.e., determining when to scan and initiating scanning), and time consumed performing these acts could otherwise be used to perform the interventional procedure and/or interact with the patient.